The
SRWA has gained a good reputation over the years for throwing a GREAT party on
the river every now and then. We think this should be one of our best! The
2014 FALL SOQUE CELEBRATION on Saturday, October 25th at 6:30pm will
be held atthe recently restored and revitalized Historic
Habersham Mill. The Mill, the shoals and the whole area is one of
the most notable landmarks on the River and the recent and beautiful
restorations have brought the facility back into splendid use. We're priveleged to be able to showcase this venue! Some of the other
highlights of the evening are an EXHIBIT of all of our submissions to the SOQUEE
RIVER DAYS project. Excerpts from over 40 submissions of artwork,
stories, histories and other EXPERIENCES on the Soque will be on display
including works by local artists (most notably many of John Kollock's
images of the Soque), and historical photographs. See below for more
details.DINNER will be a Carribbean style feast from genuine Carribean chef
Gaby Riche! Jerk Chicken, Spicy Pork, rice, cabbage, beans, cornbread and more.
Perfect for riverside dining! And no Soque Party is complete without lots
of craft beer and wine.

Our SILENT AUCTION will feature dozens of items including
river-themed local art, pottery, fishing gear, and always some unexpected
surprises from Weekend Get-Aways to Medical Procedures!! If YOU have an
ITEM you'd like to DONATE, we'd love to feature it in the Silent
Auction or our BUCKET RAFFLE which returns this year where $5 gives
you a chance to win from a wide array of great items.

It's a guaranteed GOOD TIME on the river, for a GOOD CAUSE, with some GOOD
PEOPLE. Tickets are $35 per person and are on sale NOW through
our online ordering sytem.

No hardcopy ticket
needed. However, in another week we'll have good old traditional tickets for
sale in the office. Don't delay. Venue is limited to 150 attendees (last year
was sold out!)

We're also seeking volunteers for the event, so if you'd like to come
for a discounted ticket price and put in a few hours of work let us know by
contacting Scarlett Fuller at soque_scarlett@windstream.net.

Put it on your calendars, buy your tickets, and come join us for a grand time
on the RIVER!

2) Fall event to feature Soquee River Days artwork,
history and moreOne of the highlights of our event at the Mill will be an
artistic, historical and human interest exhibit of all the
submissions to our SOQUEE RIVER DAYS project, an effort in honor of John
Kollock and his ability to inspire our love of place and the beauty of our
natural resources. This project strives to collect EVERYONE'S stories,
photos, interesting occurences, art, poetry, artwork, spoken word remembrances
or anything at all that captures YOUR experience with the SOQUE WATERSHED. We
hope to have at least 100 entries and know that YOU have something to
share.....like.....

HERE'S MINE
The first time I went canoeing on the Soquee, on Memorial Day weekend in
2003, I didn't see a single living soul the entire trip. I did see kingfishers,
a beaver family, canada geese, and a rainstorm that made each water drop invert
into the sunshine when it plopped in the river. I also went skinny dipping and
caught a catfish. At the end I rode my bike back up Pea Ridge Road to Cannon
Bridge to complete the sensation of paddling and biking the entire lower
section of the river, not to mention that great feeling of self sufficiency.
That trip (and others like it) permanently bound my heart to this
"one of a kind" river.

Soquee* River Days - submission deadline EXTENDED
(*yes that spelling is correct...check the blog site for an explanation)

The Soquee River Days project has been extended through the end of the 2014 to
December 31st. With 40 submissions made thus far we
LOVE hearing YOUR stories and experiences on the Soque and throughout the
watershed.

To encourage YOU GOOD FOLKS to continue sharing YOUR Soque
stories with us we have added a new twist… weekly prizes donated by local
businesses like Hanner’s Outfitters, Copper Pot, Tuckers, Splashe Studio
and Java Joes. Each week, our staff and board picks their favorite
overall entry to receive a prize and their submission is also published in the
Wednesday edition of the Northeast Georgian. If you own a local business
and would like to donate a prize we are still looking for a few more weeks to
cover through the end of the year. Please email Scarlett Fuller @ soque_scarlett@windstream.net
or call 706-754-9382.

No
submission is too insignificant! EVERYONE including YOU has a SOQUE
STORY, PHOTO or ARTWORK to share so please don't be shy. We'd like to have at
100 submissions by the end of the year. Maybe you took a photo of a unique
flower, or a turtle crossing the road. Perhaps you snuck up on a bear cub, or
ate a slice of watermelon sitting on a rock. Any memory that you think helps
represent your experience and your love of the Soque Watershed is a valid
submission. A great nugget we received this month was an old saying by a grandmother
that went like this,

“use it up,
wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

This simple but
powerful memory paints a beautiful picture of what it meant to live off the
land here in Northeast Georgia 100 years ago.

All Submissions will receive a free SOQUE RIVER MAP. We ask that you come by
our office to pick those up. The best submissions will receive a cash prize and
print of John Kollock's Soque River Days painting to be awarded at the end of
the year.

Check it out today and make a submission. At the completion we plan to
produce a BOOK that describes how our community experiences the
Soque Watershed!

3)
Rivers Alive Clean-Up in Clarkesville - Saturday, October 4thMark your calendars for a River CLEAN-UP on the Soque River, or one of the many
tributaries that drain to the Soque in Clarkesville. We'll meet up at PITTS PARK
in Clarkesville, and either split into two groups, or after cleaning that area
head on over to Rocky Branch which drains everything from the
post-office and Ingles all the way down to the Clarkesville Greenway where we
just completed our streambank restoration. When we do that part of
the clean-up we may also bust up some beaver activity that's been
wrecking havoc on that stream as well. And we'll also be right next to the
sight of the Clarkesville Greenway expansion into Mary Street Park.

We'll start at 9am. Let us know if you can come by sending Duncan an
e-mail (dhughes@northgatech.edu).
We'll have free
t-shirts the day of the event while they last.

Hope to see you in a few weeks.

4) Clarkesville Green Infrastructure Grant underway

The
City of Clarkesville with the assistance of the SRWA has been taking some
giant strides towards incorporating green infrastructure into the city's
management for the last several years as evidenced by: a stormwater
bioretention feature built in front of North Georgia Floors, a stormwater
inventory documenting improvements needed for stormwater infrastructure, and
most recently a mini-streambank restoration at the Clarkesville Greenway.

Building on these successes the City received a GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE grant from
the US EPA earlier this year to help identify 10 priority sites for
improving stormwater management by increasing infiltration and treatment and
reducing stormwater volumes. The process provides technical assistance in both
identifying opportunities for stormwater enhancements, and developing plans,
budgets and justifications to aid in future grants to slowly implement
improvements all across the city.

This type of long-term planning is expected to have a long-term impact in how
stormwater and stormwater infrastructure will be built and managed in the
future. Part of the process will include looking at ways to tweek and
improve policies that will reduce stormwater impacts, and in the
process create some aesthetically beautiful viewscapes.

The map above identified 10 locations for us to consider as possible first
project locations. Priority projects may include anything from removing asphalt
and replacing with pervious pavement, to installing bioswales, infiltration
ditches, pocket wetlands and other devices that capture, treat, and reduce stormwater
runoff.

Big thanks to Duncan Hughes, SRWA and Jeremy Pirkle with the City of
Clarkesville for getting this grant. Tetra Tech will provide the technical
assistance with the project.

5) North Georgia Turf Farm property conversion to Mitigation Bank

An interesting project got underway last month: conversion
of the North Georgia Turf sod farm along the Soque River in Clarkesville (just
north of the bridge on 197) into a Mitigation Bank with restored streams,
constructed wetlands and other features that should enhance the
environmental benefit of the property. Project plans were begun by owners
of North Georgia Turf about 3 or more years ago, and now are beginning to be
implemented.

Mitigation banking is the preservation and restoration of wetlands,
streams or other habitats in order to offset or compensate for adverse impacts
in nearby ecosystems. The North Georgia Turf property applied to have
mitigation credits available several years ago presumably to offset other
projects (such as piping a section of stream etc.) in other areas of the
Upper Chattahoochee River basin. As developers throughout North Georgia
(including the state DOT) are required to have such mitigation offsets
when they impact streams, they can purchase mitigation credits which will
help to pay for the restoration of this property.

Though the details of this project are far too extensive for a short summary,
one of the primary benefits of the mitigation program if all goes well is that
straightlined drainage ditches on the property will be restored to meandering
vegetated streams that should reduce runoff and sediment loads. In addition,
the extensive wetlands to be constructed on the property (see map) will
work as a sponge during extreme flooding events holding flood waters and
reducing downstream impacts including streambank erosion and streambottom
scour.

The project will take over a year to implement and is being constructed by
Northstate, the same contracting firm that helped the SRWA build a natural
channel design restoration way back in the summer of 2011.

Even though the SRWA isn't directly involved in the project we'll be watching
with great interest due to the possible net benefits the project should provide
after completion. The proposal also calls for walking trails that could be
conjoined with the Clarkesville Greenways trail one day. The owners of the
property Soque River Conservation LLC consists of North Georgia Turf owner Aaron
McWhorter and former governor (and SOQUE ROAST 2011 special guest) Sonny
Perdue. In discussions over the last several years they expressed interest
in the properties potential tie ins to a continuous river trail system
that one day could connect Clarkesville Elementary to Downtown
Clarkesville via a hiking, biking trail along the Soque River.

6) Soque River Ramble - Saturday, October 25th (same day as our party!)

Come
on out and enjoy one of Habersham's original run and walk races, and certainly
the most scenic. Dale and Jean Holmes are once again hosting this outstanding
6K in the heart of the Soque Headwaters beginning and ending at Marlan
Wilbank's farm just down Chimney Mountain Road behind the Batesville General
Store. The event benefits the SRWA and our programs to protect and restore the
Soque! You'll get to jog right along the river in the pristine headwaters of
the Watershed. It's terrific!

The pre-registration deadline is OCTOBER 17th. After that
registration increases from $20 to $25.